For much of the pandemic, Curative testing sites in D.C., Md. and Va. have been go-to locations for many residents to get quick COVID results on PCR tests. Now the company is shutting down all locations not just in the D.C. area, but nationwide.

Arlington County announced earlier this month it would be closing Curative sites it operated in partnership with the company. According to county officials, testing demand is down 80% from a year ago, thanks to the availability of at-home or pharmacy-based tests.

Curative currently has 15 testing sites in the area, plus two mobile van routes.

The closures will come in three phases, according to internal emails obtained by DCist. On November 30, Arlington’s Courthouse Plaza, Virginia Highlands Park, and Quincy Park sites will close.

On December 15 the company will close D.C. sites located at IDEA Public Charter School, Thurgood Marshall Academy, and St. Coletta of Greater Washington. It will also close sites at the Centreville Regional Library, the Richard Byrd Library in Fairfax County and the Maryland Soccerplex in Germantown, as well as van routes in the District and Fairfax County.

On December 26 Curative will close the remaining sites. These include Sojourner Truth Public Charter School and LAMB Public Charter School in D.C., Arlington Mills Community Center, and Ben Brenman Park, Charles Houston Recreation Center, and Casa Chirilagua in Alexandria.

Curative will also be laying off workers who staffed the sites, per the internal emails, and will not be providing severance pay.

According to a spokesperson for Curative, staff were given “several weeks’ notice” or more, and help with finding “other opportunities either inside or outside of Curative.”

The closures come as part of a post-pandemic pivot. The healthcare start-up is now launching its own health insurance plan, currently piloting in Austin, Tx.

“Curative’s initial goal was always to work our way out of the COVID-19 services business by helping the country manage through and emerge safely from the pandemic,” the spokesperson said in an email to DCist. “Curative is now focusing on other challenges in the healthcare industry, moving into the next phase of the company.”

Curative was founded in Los Angeles in March, 2020, and grew to have thousands of testing sites in more than 40 states, providing more than 35 million tests.

The decision comes at a time when COVID levels in the region — and much of the nation — remain low, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s a far cry from the situation a year ago, when an omicron-fueled COVID surge had some people waiting in line for more than an hour at Curative kiosks in the area.

Still, many public health experts worry about the slow uptake of the latest bivalent COVID booster, and are also concerned about what could be a bad flu season.

In the District, free rapid COVID tests are still available at select neighborhood libraries. Take-home PCR test kits are also available at 36 libraries and recreation centers in the city. D.C. is also operating COVID Centers in each of the city’s eight wards, where vaccines, boosters, tests, and KN95 masks are available to residents for free.

In Maryland, Montgomery County also offers free at-home rapid and PCR tests and operates a county testing site. Prince George’s County still operates a number of county testing sites.

In Virginia, testing sites can be found on the Virginia Department of Health website.

This story was updated to include additional information about the layoffs and to include comment from a Curative spokesperson.